THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF LITTLE THINGS – Esther 2:19-3:15; 6:1-3
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 1, 2014 under 2014 |
Preached Sunday, June 1, 2014 from Esther 2:19-3:15; 6:1-3
Theme: In the providence of God, little acts of faithfulness today can be what great events turn on tomorrow.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
That probably sounds like a strange name. But it’s really a very simple idea. It’s a matter of taking a sheet of paper and drafting out the major past stages your life—from childhood on up, and graph-out the course that God has taken you through so far. It helps to see something of the direction that God may be taking you next. And one of the very important parts of this exercise is to consider the transitional events that got you from one stage to another. The surprising thing about this exercise is that you discover that major life changes came about because of something that really seemed rather small at the time.
I can certainly testify to that. It was the rather small matter of reading a gospel tract that was sitting on my cousin’s dresser one day that led me to realize that I was lost and doomed to eternal judgment—making me think for a long time about my need for salvation. Then, it was the simple choice, a few years later, of watching one television show instead of another than led me to hear the gospel and become saved. It was the choice of sharing of my testimony in a church a few years later that led to my meeting the girl who would become my wife. And it was the simple question of a youth pastor some years later—”Why aren’t you in the ministry?”—that led to my going to seminary. Great changes in my life, it seems, have often—in the providence of God—turned on relatively small things.
And it’s the big potential impact of small things in life that is the focus of our look this morning in the Book of Esther.
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As we saw last week, this little book is one that teaches us about the invisible hand of God’s providence in the lives of His people—working in unseen ways to bring about His good purposes for them. God Himself, as you’ll perhaps recall, is not mentioned in this book of the Bible. But it’s very clear that He was behind the scenes, off in the shadows, directing the outcome of events the whole time long. He shows us in the story of this book that He is able to turn events of life in such a way that His people are placed in situations of great usefulness to Him; so that He brings about His glory through them, and does great good to them.
And as we stressed last week, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this book is an illustration to us of how God works in our lives. We don’t see His hand. His work seems invisible to us. Sometimes we even wonder if He is there at all. But through His gracious and providential outworking of all things, He proves that He has been there all along; and that if we will just take it by faith that it is so, we will see in the end that it truly is so.
We saw this last week as we introduced this wonderful book. We saw how God had raised the beautiful young Jewish captive girl Esther—along with her pious Jewish elder cousin and guardian Mordecai—to a place of prominence in the reign of the mighty Persian King Ahasuerus’. And this was to that, in her new position, she was able to be used by God to save her Jewish kinsmen, in a time of great distress, from complete destruction.
And this morning, as we continue our look at this story, we see yet another principle we need to know about the providential care of God in our lives. And that is that He is able to bring great results about from seemingly small things. We need to learn that, with God, there really are no ‘small things’. In the providence of the almighty God, little acts of faithfulness today can be what great events turn upon tomorrow.
You might say that this is the heaven-ward perspective of what our Lord Jesus taught us when He said, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10). From the horizontal, earth-bound perspective, we prove that we will be faithful in big things by how we are faithful in small things. But from the heaven-ward perspective, God Himself proves that He is faithful to bring about great good from our small acts of faithfulness.
What an encouragement this ought to be to us!
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So; let’s resume our look at the story of Esther—beginning with the end of Chapter 2—and see how this plays out. Notice first . . .
1. THE SEEMINGLY-LITTLE ACT OF FAITHFULNESS (2:19-23).
As you’ll remember from our last time together, we saw how God’s unseen hand of providence worked to elevate the young captive Jewish woman Esther to a place of prominence and influence. The mighty king of the Median-Persian empire—here called Ahasuerus—had deposed his former wife from the throne; and Esther won the beauty contest and became queen in her place. You can read about that in Chapters 1-2.
The end of Chapter 2 takes up the story after the beauty contest was over. We’re told that, after all the other young women who had been considered for the throne were gathered together a second time—most likely to take lesser positions in the king’s household, Esther’s elder cousin Mordecai “Mordecai sat within the king’s gate” (v. 19). This was the Bible’s way of indicating to us that Mordecai occupied a position of influence within the king’s court. And from this position, he was able to keep an eye on his young cousin’s situation. We’re told, “Now Esther had not revealed her family and her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command” (v. 20).
And it was then, from the vantage point of his position within the court that Mordecai overheard a plot against the king. “In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan [or “Bigthana” as he is called later in this book] and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus” (v. 21). What the cause of their fury against the king was is something that is not told to us. But in the providence of God, Mordecai heard about their plan.
Now; as a captive Jewish man in a pagan land—and in a situation in which he feared to even reveal the ethnic identity of his precious young cousin—Mordecai might have been tempted to say nothing. He could have stood by silently and let others kill this pagan king. But he did not do this. Their plot was an evil one, and Morecai was a righteous man; and we read, “So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king” (vv. 22-23).
That was an act of faithfulness. He reverenced God, and would not stand by and watch the king be murdered. And even though the revealing of the plot against the king would hardly be called a ‘small’ act of faithfulness, once the matter was over, it was largely forgotten. Life went on. He went back to his duties, and the king went back to his rule.
People may forget things we do in obedience to God, but God is faithful never to forget them. As Hebrews 6:10 promises, “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name . . .” To God, there are no ‘small things’—no small acts of faithfulness and obedience. He remembers them all. And as we will see shortly, that very same ‘small thing’ on the part of Mordecai became a very big thing the purpose of God.
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Now; that wasn’t the only act of faithfulness on Mordecai’s part. There was another. And this second act of faithfulness seemed—at first glance—to bring about more trouble than good. But it was that second act of obedience that created . . .
2. THE CIRCUMSTANCES INTO WHICH THAT LITTLE ACT SAT DORMANT (3:1-15).
That’s the way it is so often is, isn’t it? We don’t seem at times to see any good brought about by our small acts of faithfulness. But those acts of faithfulness aren’t forgotten by God or wasted. They, you might say, sit ‘dormant’—seeming to lay inactive—until the time is right in the perfect plan of God.
After the noble Jewish man Modecai saved the king’s life—perhaps after as much as four or five years had gone by—it came about that the king had promoted a man named Haman to a position of authority in his administration. This man Haman was of the Amalekite people—and they were the ancient and very hostile enemies of the people of Israel. Way back in Exodus—after the people of Israel had been delivered out of their bondage in Egypt—the Amalekites mercilessly attacked them from behind while they were weary and travel-worn. God promised that this act of aggression was something that He Himself would perpetually against the Amalekites. He said that He would “utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14). They were the enemies of His chosen people; and this man Haman was one of them—”the son of Hammedetha the Agagite” (3:1). In the annals of Jewish history, this man Haman has gone down as one of the most notorious anti-Semites of all time—a man who almost completely destroyed the Jewish people. And just think of it! The king elevated him “above all princes who were with him” (v. 1). What a trouble this would have been to the people of Israel!
Among the servants of King Ahasuerus, all were made to bow and pay homage to Haman when he walked by; “for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage” (v. 2). How could he? How, as a faithful Jewish man, could he “bow” and pay “homage” to a man who was of the people that God Himself declared to be the enemies of His own precious people?—especially when, as some historians believe, “bowing” to Haman in this context was the same as declaring him to be deity? God, after all, was Mordecai’s ultimate Lord and Master—not King Ahasuerus; and certainly not Haman! Others within the king’s court appealed to Mordecai to bow to him. After all, they may have argued, what would it really hurt if he did so? But Mordecai—faithful to his God—would hear nothing of it. It must be that he told them that, because he was a Jew, he could not betray his God and bow to someone that God had set apart as a perpetual enemy to God’s chosen people.
In verses 4-5, we see how this act of unfaithfulness became a cause of trouble. We read, “Now it happened, when they spoke to him daily and he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath.” Tyrants like Haman have always hated it when the people of God are faithful to God’s commands. Tyrants don’t like the competition.
Now, brothers and sisters; would it have been such a big thing to bow the knee? Yes it would! Small matters of faithfulness in the sight of God are never ‘small’ to Him! Big things—as we will see—are made by Him to turn on small acts of faithfulness! And if I may pause in the story for a moment, let’s make very sure you and I remember that! When it comes to faithful obedience to Go—even in matters that seem small and inconsequential; even when it seems like it would make life easier if we weren’t so ‘faithful’ to God—don’t compromise! God’s word says that if we are faithful in small things, we will be faithful in big things. And that small matter of obedience may be the very thing that God uses to ring about tremendous good for His cause.
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But it certainly didn’t seem that way at first. Often, in the perfect timing of God, our acts of faithfulness seem to lay dormant for a while in a circumstance of great hardship. Haman, we’re told, “disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai” (v. 6). And because even the nation of Judah was under the domain of King Ahasuerus at this time, it would have meant the complete destruction of the Jewish people!
In pursuit of his plan, Haman had ‘Pur’ cast before him—that is, the casting of lots. They cast Pur before him for each month and each day, in a paganistic and superstitious effort to determine the best day for the destruction of the Jews. And the Pur indicated the thirteenth day of the month of Adar—a little over ten months away.
Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain. If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.” So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you” (vv. 8-11).
It doesn’t seem as if the king even checked to see what people it was that Haman spoke of. He simply hastily—and perhaps greedily—agreed to the plan. And so, word was gotten out, according to Haman’s command, to all the officials throughout the kingdom. Letters were written in every language, sealed with the king’s own signet ring; declaring the dreadful decree that, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, all the Jews—young and old, and even women and children—were to be destroyed, killed and annihilated; and all their possessions were to be plundered. The notices were sent out in haste, because they issued from the capital city with the royal authority of the king.
What a horrifying turn of events! Imagine living in a kingdom in which such a decree was issued! Imagine the bewilderment and dark mood that would have prevailed! Imagine—most of all—the horror that this would be to the Jewish people themselves! And take a look at the end of Chapter 3; where we’re told, “So the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed” (v. 15), or “confused”. The decree went out, the empire felt the horror, the king and his evil viceroy gave themselves over to drink, and the capital city went into disarray.
Now; I believe that the one who ultimately motivated Haman was Satan himself. The devil is the original hater of the Jews. He hated them from the beginning because it would be from them that the promised Seed of the woman Eve would be born—Jesus our Redeemer; the Seed who would crush the head of the serpent. And now that Jesus has come and redeemed us, and now that the devil’s efforts to prevent our redemption have been foiled—sealing the devil’s doom—he has ever since turned his vicious hatred against the Jewish people and against all those who have trusted the Savior who came from them. Satan is the one who was behind Haman’s plan; and behind every effort throughout history to wipe out the Jewish people.
But behind the scenes—superintending over and limiting the efforts of Satan—is the sovereign hand of God. Consider that Haman didn’t simply declare a day for his evil plan; but instead chose to cast lots for it! And consider that the lots indicated not some nearby day, but a day over ten months in the future! As Proverbs 16:33 tells us, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
This was of God; and it allowed the sovereign God the time He wished to work His good will through that almost-forgotten act of Mordecai’s faithfulness.
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And so, let’s look ahead in the story, up to Chapter 6—past these grim circumstances; and to . . .
3. THE GREAT THING THAT FINALLY CAME ABOUT FROM THAT SMALL ACT (6:1-3).
After a little time had passed—after the notice of Haman’s evil decree had gone out; after Haman even began to plot the death of Mordecai himself—we’re told that the king could not sleep. God, it seemed, allowed the king to have a night of insomnia. And so, in his restless condition, he commanded that the books of the records of the chronicles of his kingdom be brought to him. What a thing to have chosen to read! And as he was lazily thumbing through the records of his own activities, guess what he found! “And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus” (6:2).
Perhaps the king thought to himself, “My; that sure was a close one! How glad I am that this fellow Mordecai informed the queen; and the queen informed me! If he hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here today!” And then, perhaps as he thought about it, he couldn’t remember what had been done to reward Mordecai for his faithfulness. “Then the king said, ‘What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?’ And the king’s servants who attended him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him’” (v. 3).
And do you know what happened? Even as Haman was plotting Mordecai’s death, the plans of Haman came to a sudden halt as the king ordered him personally to parade Mordecai through the capital city in honor! And Haman’s downfall progressed from there!
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Do you see it? It was that one act of faithfulness long ago—a seemingly small thing in the earthly perspective; something that even the king himself had almost completely forgotten—that was later used by God, at just the right time, to bring about a great turning of the tide!
Brothers and sisters in Christ’ let’s make sure we learn the lesson. In the sovereign hand of the great God of providence, there are no ‘little things’. There is never an ‘unessential’ act of obedience. In the providence of God, one little act of faithfulness today may be the very thing that tremendous events turn on tomorrow for the glory of God and the good of His people.
Let’s, then, remember that there is never a cause for His people to lose hope—even in dark times and dismal circumstances. Let’s be faithful and obedient to God in everything—even in the seemingly ‘small’ things; and even—and perhaps especially!—when it costs us greatly to do so. And as we do so, let’s trust the unseen, providential hand of God to do the rest!
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